Papa Lazaru

Fred's right to try and get everything he can for NUFC, thats his job and its good to see him acatually doing it now and then. Clubs pay millions for the players, pay their wages, their bonuses, their insurance, their medical bills, bungs for their agents etc. and anything else you care to name and then an international side can come along take them from you, play them (whilst you still have to pay their weekly wages) crock them, give you them back fucked and you have to continue paying for them and if its long term have to pay for a replacement (and then their wages and the like). Its a ludicrous situation that wouldn't be accepted in any other walk of life. Hope Fred and G14 get it sorted once and for all but i doubt it.

What you should have said is "6 miles south of Peebles" Then people would understand it's significance. Good luck though mate. Ah, that Innerleithen!!! Good luck with it though!

I'm with you and am fundamentally opposed to them, especially the ones peddling more fundamental faiths, like Emmanuel college in Gateshead. They teach lies, discourage free thought, have luddite attitudes and are anti-science, and are devisive. Of all the things the current government have done this supporting these ridiculous, outdated schools is the thing I object to most, even more than Iraq. I would advocate an entirely secular education for all children. I'm with you on that kind of Faith school. As Superintendent Chalmers said in the Simpsons: "Thank the Lord"? That sounded like a prayer. A prayer in a public school. God has no place within these walls, just like facts don't have a place within an organized religion. The one thing i do like about alot of the Faith schools is they seem to understand discipline and controlling children better and actually run their schools well from that poitn of view, not getting out of hand like other schools. So if they kept the discipline and the ability to get good results and took out the religious doctrination and ludicrous ideas like creationsism then everyones a winner!

Ah well, if i'd only been on here in time to see this post...then i'd have had to make an excuse (gay or otherwise)!!!

I could and indeed do often listen to two albums a day, but not every day of the year and certainly when i listen to a new album, hearing it once isn't enough to form a definitive opinion. I like to give it a few listens in a short space of time, become familiar with it and see what i really think. That's not to say Patrokles is lying about what he listens to just personally i wouldn't have fully formed opinions on albums hearing them once and that many new ones at a time!

Should have done a matching one on his cock as well! No doubt if it happened in this country we'd already be paying for him to have it fixed in the best private hospital available!

Bobby's team showed how to get off to a flyer after an intertoto capmpaign that one year. We really came out the blocks at full speed and got an unusually good start for NUFC, this time we have blown a great opportunity.

Agree, the start we had was sufficient to get a good few points on the board and get some confidence and momentum going and we've pissed it away with some poor performances all round. But relegation isn't something thats worrying me.

I'm confused - which of Souness and Roeder has a good track record, or does Roeder not count? I would say 2/2 out of our last managers have a shit track record. If you want to go back to when Shepherd has been our chairman, I would say only 2/5, i.e. less than half, had an impressive track record (Dalglish and Robson). A tiny bit of research into Gullit would have revealed him for what he was, and as for Souness, I would say this was the worst premiership appointment in history. I don't think that's quite right to be honest...you can remove the word premiership from it!

Only the 5th biggest room in the country though Sima - I'm only repeating what Bob said, as it happens I do agree with him and PL...it wasn't you was it If it had been me it would most likely have been a 10 minute long tirade against English refs!!!

Only the 5th biggest room in the country though

Have to be honest i'm personally not worried about relegation, there are worse teams in the prem and i think we will do more than enough to stay up under Roeder. However that doesn't mean we won't have a shite season, that is looking like a distinct possibility with the paper thin squad, blundering defence etc.

We can't play this way well enough against top teams, the goals were inevitable and we'd have been better off at least going for it from the start. If you aren't good at these tactics you are basically saying to manu, heres 90 mins to attack us until you get some goals, and don't worry about us bothering you at the other end. Eventually they will break through and probably more than once, as has been proven. If we'd played Zog and Martins and actually had a go at least they have something to think about as well, instead of a 90 minute procession of attacks against us. Teams with players and managers that are used to these tactics and that way of playign and have more compitent defences can try playign that way, and it may work, though its still a risk against manu when they're inf orm. But we aren't cut out for it and were always goign to concede.

The only difference is that was also Souness' tactics for home matches as well! and his tactis for bird feeding Or his tactics!

am I alone in wishing that we had this fixture the first game of every season? get it out of the way, easy to bounce back from (you can blame it on new players having trouble settling in etc.) and you know you won't have to face Man U at OT again in the league so it won't interrupt any good run you manage to string together. Also (though not this season) catching manu early is often best, before they get up to full speed and start stringing the wins together. But whenever it is i want tos ee us go there and actually have a go, not cling on pittifully in a style of play we aren't good at, and wait for a defeat.

The only difference is that was also Souness' tactics for home matches as well!

I agree, if people genuinely believe we go there with absolutely no hope of winning whatsoever, wouldn't it be better to at least have a go with positive attacking and lose than go there and try to hang on desperately in 90 mins of being scared of manu and lose!

Well sadly this is what i was expecting, we're not a team for killing games and trying to snatch a draw. If we go to manu hoping to hold out for 90 mins we won't, at some point we'll let one in and then lose what little confidence we do have and won't have much chance of getting started into an attacking mode. Far better as somebody said earlier to have had the pace and directness of Zog and Martins in the team and at least look to attack occasionally. You can still play it slightly defensively, keep it tight and have those two with pace on the break.

I have to disagree. Play your best striker...always. Play your best striker for the system you're employing. Which, in this case, is Ameobi. There's no denying that 4-5-1 suits Ameobi more than Martins, in fact for some reason,a way from home on his own has seen Shola turn in some of his better efforts/performances. But i don't like to see Martins dropped just after the massive confidence boost of his 2 goals midweek and are NUFC ever really that successful with the tactic of trying to defend and kill games away to the very best??? We usually end up holding for a while but ultimately losing, in which cae we might as well go for it and lose. With say O'Neil and Villa he knows exactly how to play that kind of game and has done so many times and probably has a team who will do it better, but NUFC never seem good at this ay of playing against a manu or arsenal for 90 mins, and you have to do it for 90 mins. And you can play 4-4-2 and still keep it tight and sensible, not going all out attack and leaving your defence in for a spanking. I can still see why Roeder wants to do it this way to be fair, i just doubt we'll hold out and you have to for it to work.

Also his versions of: Baby got back Insane in the brain Rape me (for his spoken intro!)

Unless Martins has an injury (which at NUFC is quite likely) then its a piss poor decision. He has just scored two goals to get his confidence up and needs to be playing and we need him to be playign to help cause their defence any problems.

Obviously as has been said you need a full season to really see what he's done. But already the signs are there, he's taken what was an absolute shower lasts eason and with hardly a change in personel has them extremely well organised and tough to beat, including away at the very best teams in the prem, they look motivated and confident and he has likely got a shitload of money to spend come January. I think he will show he's a top notch maanger, but for now we have to wait and see. How anyone could possibly think Souness should even be mentioned in the same breah as O'Neil however is a mystery.

I agree, Marsh is a tit, but in part his point is valid. A player with no confidence will always get worse when their own fans barrack them instead of backing them and bloody minded players will hardly respond to stick by giving everything for people who've just ripped into them. And if one player is getting abuse it doesn't inspire team mates (and possibly good friends) to give you more when you treat their mate like shit. The problem is there seems at times to be more spectators than supporters. A supporter will support his team and players, hence the word support in the title. A spectator pays their money and expects a certain level of entertainment/effort/performance etc. in return for that money and when they don't get it, they make their feelings known. That's fair enough you're paying a shitload of money for what these days is mostly very poor, but you aren't a supporter when you do this, you're a paying spectator.

I said the same to someone at work earlier - you get a different crowd in on a European night, and I'm fully expecting Bramble's name to get booed and the crowd to get on his back. I'd expect it on a weekend match as well though! When you think back to the days of Keegan, booing was a very rare thing in any form, indeed Keegan had a go at the fans after one game for doing it, and rightly so. Now i obviously accept there was alot less cause for dissatisfaction under Keegan, but over the years booing, moaning, whinging etc. has just exploded. It happens at half time, at full time, during matches, it happens to the team, to individual players and just adds to any problems the team or individual players may be suffereing. Back in the day you'd be far more likely for the fans to concentrate more on giving the opposition stick or the officials and back their own team. I used to love it when the whole ground got so wound up by the usual disgracefully piss poor and biassed reffing int his country that the atmosphere would just errupt in backing of the team and often lifted them accordingly. Now as soon as its not goign our way its either silence, rumbles of discontent or outright booing, and shouting at our players, which does fuck all good at all.

To be honest i'm not worried whatever defence we put out as they are all more than enough to win this game whatever people think about the players in question. What will no doubt happen though is that with Bramble's confidence already near to rock bottom (at best!) to help him (and thus the team) through that, some fans will likely boo him when his name is read out and will get straight on his back the second he makes the slightest error. Because lets be honest that's what happens at St. James' these days.